George Blake is 93 years old. He walks with a cane and is practically blind, but he continues to dress tastefully and still has an exceptionally sharp mind. This man, who has recently been living at his dacha not far from Moscow, can be mistaken for an ordinary resident of the village. However, in fact, this is one of the most interesting figures in the entire history of espionage.
George Blake, British intelligence officer, was a double agent for over 20 years. He passed secret information to the USSR, which thwarted a number of British plans and led to the exposure of several British agents. In 1961, George Blake was arrested for espionage and sentenced to 42 years in prison. However, after 5 years he escaped. Blake fled to Russia, where he still lives. Interested in learning more about who George Blake is? His photo and biography presented in the article will introduce you to this interesting person.
The Origin of George Blake
First, let's briefly talk about the origin of the English intelligence officer, whocurious enough. George Blake was born on November 11, 1922. His father was a native of Constantinople, businessman Albert William Behar, and his mother was Kareeva Ida Mikhailovna. The age of the tree of the family name Behar, belonging to the Jewish aristocracy, is more than 600 years. In the Middle Ages, Albert Behar's ancestors lived in Spain and Portugal, prospering in finance and trade. In the 15th century, Isaac Abravanel, one of them, served as finance minister under King Ferdinand V of Aragon. After a while, the family moved to Turkey and Egypt.
Albert Behar during the First World War fought in Flanders on the side of the British army. He received the rank of captain, was wounded several times, and earned several military awards. Albert Behar served for some time with Field Marshal Haig at the military intelligence headquarters. In 1919, in London, he met Katharina Gertrud Beiderwellen, a charming Dutch woman. Her family was also noble. As early as the 17th century, he gave the Netherlands a number of admirals and church hierarchs. Katharina and Albert started a family. They married on January 16, 1922 in London and settled in Rotterdam. The parents named their first child George in honor of George V. In the family, after George, two daughters were born - Adele and Elizabeth.
Childhood
Albert Behar's lung disease worsened in 1935 and he died soon after. George, after the death of his father, spent three years with his aunt in Cairo, where he studied at an English school. In her house, he struck up a friendship with her son, Henri Kuriel, who professed communism. Later this man became one of the founders of the Communist PartyEgypt. The views of Henri Kuriel significantly influenced George's worldview.
Holland managed to avoid occupation by the Germans during the First World War. Hope for a new fortune still lingered in 1939. However, in May of the following year, paratroopers from Germany cut the roads between The Hague and Rotterdam. After that, German tanks moved in the direction of these cities from the eastern border of the country. Planes bombed the city and port. Only ruins remain of Rotterdam.
Arrest and escape from the camp
The Gestapo learned that George Behar, who was 17 at the time, was British. He was immediately arrested and placed in a camp located north of Amsterdam. French and British prisoners (civilians) were kept in this place.
18-year-old George in August 1940 escaped from this camp, guarded by SS troops. Anthony Beiderwellen, George's uncle, found a place where the fugitive could hide from the SS. Blake soon began serving as a liaison for one of the Dutch Resistance groups that collaborated with the secret Dutch army and British intelligence.
Moving to England, change of surname and work in MI6
On the day of the invasion, Blake's sisters and mother (in the photo below - George with his mother) managed to leave for England. They got seats on a British destroyer, one of those that came to evacuate the Dutch government and the royal family to Hoek van Holland.
George was forced to leave Holland in 1942. In 1943, through Spain and France, he reached England. Here he andchanged his last name to Blake. George enlisted in the Royal Navy as a volunteer. He briefly served in the submarine fleet, and then became a member of the British Foreign Intelligence Service (MI6).
In order to participate in the Cold War, intelligence officers needed to know the language and ideology of their opponent. Therefore, the leadership of MI6 taught them the Russian language and the basics of communist doctrine. This theory was consistent with George's Christian beliefs. In 1947 he was sent to Cambridge for a deeper study of the Russian language.
Service in Korea
A year later, in October 1948, George Blake was sent to Korea. His biography continues with a new interesting page. One of the tasks that confronted him was the creation of an MI-6 intelligence network in the Soviet Primorye. In June 1950, war broke out between South and North Korea. George was encouraged to work in North Korea for as long as possible. After some time, the British government decided to send troops to support South Korea. Then the North Koreans decided to intern the consulate staff, including Blake. They were placed in a POW camp.
The New Way of Blake
In the spring of 1951, a package arrived at the camp from the Soviet embassy in North Korea. The following books were invested in it: "State and Revolution" by Lenin, "Capital" by Marx and "Treasure Island" by Stevenson. The KGB is thus ideologicallyprocessed foreign candidates slated for recruitment.
George Blake, the scout, was almost ready to take the new path by then. George was already thinking about joining the communism movement openly. He wanted to do propaganda work after returning to England. However, another path opened up for him - to stay to work in MI6 and transmit information to the USSR about operations being prepared by British intelligence. Blake decided to choose him.
Through a North Korean soldier guarding the prisoners, George passed a note to the Soviet embassy asking for a meeting with a KGB representative. At this meeting, he was offered cooperation. His condition was the provision of information about the intelligence operations of Great Britain against the communist countries. Cooperation was not paid.
Watching military communications and transmitting sensitive data
In 1953, after a three-year captivity, George Blake, recruited by the intelligence of the Soviet Union, returned to London through the USSR. Here he became deputy head of the department responsible for listening to military negotiations conducted by the Russians in Austria. Listening was carried out by connecting to military cables. George relayed important information to his handler by contacting him.
After the withdrawal of Russian troops from Austria, it was decided to resume such operations in Berlin. In this case, three Soviet cables were used, which passed near the borders of the American sector. The consent of the CIA was required. It andbegan funding the operation.
George Blake handed over the plan of operation to Soviet intelligence when it had just begun to be developed. In addition to information about the tunnel, George passed on important data on other operations against the USSR and its allies.
The danger looming over Blake
British intelligence sent Blake to Lebanon in 1960 to learn Arabic. They wanted to use George in the Middle East in the regional MI6 residency. Its leader, Nicholas Elliot, called him in the spring of 1961 and said that George Blake was being invited to London, where a discussion about a new appointment was to take place. At that time, the situation in the Middle East was rather tense. Therefore, it was impossible to recall an intelligence officer to London without good reason. It took permission from the KGB residency. This was not safe, since Blake George at that time could be calculated by counterintelligence. However, Blake was advised to return to London, as Moscow found no cause for concern.
Arrest on charges of espionage
Blake was betrayed by Mikhail Golenevsky, a high-ranking Polish intelligence official. He defected to the Americans, taking important documents with him. One of them pointed out that there was a Soviet source in the SNA Berlin residency. This document was secret and had a very narrow distribution. Among its recipients was Blake George. A small team was organized within the SNA to investigate the leak. As a result of three months of work, it was proved that Blake was the source.
George was arrested inLondon. The interrogation took place at MI6 headquarters. On the first day, George Blake, an English spy, was accused of espionage. In the evening, George was released to see his mother, and then the interrogations resumed. Dick White, Director General of MI6, personally participated in them.
Trial and imprisonment
Blake admitted that he worked for the intelligence of the USSR. He said that he did it not under the pressure of blackmail, threats or torture, but for ideological reasons. Blake was then sent to Scotland Yard. In May 1961, a trial was held at which George was sentenced to 42 years in prison.
Blake met in prison Patrick Pottle and Michael Randle, members of the Peace and Anti-Nuclear Movement inspired by Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher. They received 18 months in prison for organizing and participating in a demonstration at an American military base in England. Patrick Pottle and Michael Randle spoke out against the installation of bombers with nuclear warheads.
Preparing to escape
George and these two activists developed friendly relations in prison. They felt sympathy for Blake, and also believed that 42 years in prison was an inhuman term. In 1963, a few days before their release, they said they were ready to help him if he decided to make an escape. Now Blake knew that he had friends who, importantly, had many like-minded people and acquaintances.
Sean Burke, a young Irishman, was a member of a literary circle organized in prison. He also knew Pottle and Randle well. Sean Burke got 8 years for beingmailed a bomb to a police officer who Sean believed had insulted him. The bomb exploded and the policeman's kitchen was destroyed. The guard himself, however, remained unharmed. Blake and Burke struck up a friendship, and George after a while decided that his friend would be perfect for the role of assistant. He was adventurous, brave, smart, and nearing the end of his term.
Blake's second escape
After Burke was released, he made contact with Pottle and Randle, who agreed to cooperate with him. They found the money needed for the operation. Burke decided to buy a walkie-talkie and give it to Blake in prison through a confidant. At that time, neither the administration nor the prison police had yet been equipped with it, so George maintained a relatively safe constant communication with his friend by radio. Burke organized Blake's escape from prison, and Pottle and Randle were responsible for the safe house where he could hide, and for his departure from the country after 2 months in a tourist van, in which Randle placed his wife and two young sons as passengers. The plan succeeded: Blake was taken to Berlin. Here he established contact with Soviet intelligence.
Interestingly, the apartment Blake was hiding in was not far from the prison. George was sought out by experienced specialists, but no one allowed the possibility that he was so close to her. Blake even played a trick, one night placing a bouquet of chrysanthemums on the threshold of the prison in memory of his own release. Soon, on January 7, 1967, he flew to Hamburg, and then the KGB agents transported him to the Russiancapital.
The book and the fate of Sean Burke
Sean Burke published a book in 1970, where he presented his own version of events. He only slightly changed the names of Pottle and Randle in his narrative, and also put enough information about them into the narrative so that the British authorities could understand that they were involved in the escape. But they decided not to arrest them, since it was more profitable for the authorities for people to believe that the KGB, and not a group of amateurs, organized this escape.
Sean Burke, who had a weakness for alcoholic beverages, settled in Ireland. He was having fun with the money he got from the book. Sean Burke became an alcoholic and died in 1970 at a fairly young age and practically penniless.
George Blake: life in Moscow
The fate of Sean Burke was sad. Unlike him, George Blake became famous. After the trial, the whole world learned about him. George Blake, a former British intelligence officer, ended up in the Soviet Union a few months after his escape. Blake divorced his wife, who bore him three children, and began a new life. Having moved to the USSR, he officially worked at IMEMO as a researcher under the name Georgy Ivanovich Bekhter.
George's merits were marked by the state. He was given a free apartment in Moscow and a dacha, and a pension for a KGB officer. In addition, he received the rank of colonel of foreign intelligence, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and Lenin, and was also awarded a number of other awards.
In 1990 he published hisGeorge Blake's autobiography (No Other Choice). By the way, this is not his only autobiographical book. In 2005, George Blake wrote another one ("Transparent Walls"). For this book, in 2007, he was awarded the Prize of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.
November 11, 2012 Vladimir Putin congratulated George Blake on his 90th birthday. The President's telegram says that George has always successfully completed the tasks assigned to him.
Blake is now 93 years old. He still lives in Moscow, enjoys reading historical literature, cycling, classical music (Vivaldi, Mozart, Handel, Bach). George Blake is still a committed communist. England accuses him of betrayal, but he denies these accusations and emphasizes that he never felt that he belonged to this country. According to Blake, the collapse of the USSR does not mean that the idea of communism is utopian or bad. He believes that people have not yet grown up to her.
